A new report by researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found that exposure of developing human fetuses to such chemical compounds as PFOS and PFOA, often used in non-stick cookware (including pans coated in Teflon) and in some food packaging—may reduce birth weight and size.

The researchers came to their conclusions—which they warn are preliminary and need to be verified by future studies—by testing cord blood samples from 293 pregnant women for PFOA and PFOS, and then examining the levels in relation to pregnancy outcomes. They found that high levels of the chemicals in cord blood levels were related to slightly lower birth weights and head circumferences.

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